Why Are You A Welder?
Marty Rice, a welding instructor at the High School Career Center in Texas, wrote an excellent column this month on why he became a welder and why he stayed in the trade. You can read the article here.
Rice writes about terrible hours, unbearable temperatures, fatal on-the-job injuries and a host of other unpleasant circumstances that can go along with being a welder.
But he also talks about good, sometimes excellent, pay, being able to travel all over the world, the great camaraderie and other rewards that can also be experienced as a welder.
Reading such a well written, honest account of a welder’s life got us thinking, “Why are you a welder?”
Tell us what drew you to welding in the first place, what you like and don’t like about it, and what meaning welding has in your life.
Clearly, this isn’t a profession for the meek and mild. As Rice notes, welding can be “rough, hard and dangerous.” So why do you do it? Share your thoughts on this subject by posting a comment below.
Average (Not Rated)
January 29th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Im a street rodder and my projects-dreams can not become a reality unless I was a welder. Been doin this for a while now and whether its the most fattest arc bead or the most precise tig weld I know its what my passion is based on!
January 30th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I’m a welder out of trade choice, one not easily swayed to new technologies.
As a “very aged” professional tradesperson, I was reluctant to change “my way” in the collision repair environment, (that I also taught my staff welding auto body parts), for “new” MIG technology, as it did’t fit with my learned way of torch welding mild steel.
20 years went by, and I still conducted welding operations the “old way”.
Vehicle production metals changed, which disallow my “hard-headed” way of welding.
Then I met a Miller repersentative, who showed me a more productive and efficient way to weld.
I finally overcame my reluctance and hesitation to conform with new and proven technology, learning MIG welding is easier, and a much more efficient way to complete a quality welding operation.
This would not have been possible without Miller providing the step-by-step way of doing so.
Compared to torch welding today, once you get the “hang of it” MIG is like spreading butter on bread.
I’m a much better welder today because of Miller’s support and information, as are my appreciative staff, that bugged me for many years before I caught on!!!.
I have 3 Miller MIG welders (2-251’s and a 210) in my shop today because of it!
I’m also leaning toward a Miller plasma cutting system.
Who says you can’t teach on “old dog” new tricks?
January 31st, 2008 at 7:20 am
I am a welder because I want to be. I had to learn the trade as part of my profession (industrial maintenance) and loved it. 20+ years later I own an ornamental iron shop because I still love it. I love the opportunity to be creative and when a project is over to be able to step back and say I made that. In my line of work now I do it for the enjoyment. I am getting paid to be an artist of sorts.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Unfortunately my full time profession is not welding. Fortunately I still get to do alot of welding. I started in Vo-ag class in the seventies. . . okay the sixties and have always loved the tangible results of the finished product.
I enjoy the challenge of fabrication and how welding consumes my senses and doesn’t leave me time to worry about anything else.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:33 pm
because i love the job!!
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
My parents offerd to put me in a school of my choice, motors and steel is just better then anything else I work long hours and at heights, weld alot of bad metels. But motors and steel is just better then anythng else.
god bless all steel workers
February 4th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
my dad was a farmer, farmers weld out of necessity. he let me play w/ his stick welder & torch when i was only 12-13 years old. i grew up building hog self feeders out of 55 gal. barrels , car hood boats, & anything i could wrap my mind around. in high school i was one of the top two welders in vo-ag. my vocation was machine shop , into tool&die. i was exposed to tig welding. i’ve done a lot of welding on cars , repairs & hotrods. i’m retired now [ farming , built my own anhydrous fertilizer machine ] ,but i have a tig /ac-dc stick welder, a portable ac/dc , an acetylene torch , & just purchased a miller 252 mig & i’m trying to get aquainted w/ it. w/out a welder i would feel like i couldn’t do anything.
February 4th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I weld as a hobby mostly and for work to help my department save money rather than always hiring a welder. I always enjoyed working with metal, trying to see what I can make out of scrap. I have only started stick welding 5 years ago but have saved my department well over $5000 in repairs. I have since learned Mig and Tig and now play with all 3. Of things I wish I had the time and shop space to build are a trike for the days I retire. In my spare time I will gather up scrap and just start piecing things together. Welding is one of those hobbies, you dont think of the dangers, its fun no matter what.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
because my wife says I have to work
February 6th, 2008 at 12:31 am
To have the power to fuse something together as strong as steel in the palm of your hand. The abilty to build anything on the face of the planet bigger, stronger, tougher, and just downright mean!
Why not do it!
February 6th, 2008 at 12:42 am
As of right now I am a freshmen in college and taking Welding as a required course for my Diesel Tech Major. Hands down it is my favorite class/lab and it makes Mondays a day to look forward to. Right now we’re learning Stick Welding and we will cover practically everything (TIG, MIG, Plasma Cutting, Oxy Acetylene, Brazing, General Metal Fab etc.) I have been MIG welding for a few years now mostly on my small projects, and every time the mask dims, it still never fails to amaze me. Being able to in fractions of a second to strike the arc, create the weld pool, and begin bonding together two pieces of metal together in that little bit of time is amazing.
February 6th, 2008 at 6:59 am
My grandfather always had a welding shop. I have always been interested in the craftsmanship. I started welding around 16 years old. I love to be able to fabracate anything i need. It is also great to see a finished product and feel the pride and get complements.
February 6th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Welding offers me the opportunity to travel all over this great country, working on big jobs and small. Usually for pretty good pay and lots of good friends. When I work in a big building or something I can say 30 years from now - “I built that!”
February 6th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I was introduced to welding through a good friend and it immediately changed my life.It is very refreshing to know that I can take a flat piece of sheet metal,(these days stainless) and fab up a working piece of equipment of its own. Hard way to make a living? you bet! But the rewards of seeing the finished product is all I need! I wouldn’t have it any other way.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Well I started welding at an old job in a factory. I liked it and what you could do with the skills. I went to Hobart Institute of Welding Technology and am currently looking for a Union job probably at the local Boilermakers Union. To me welding is a treasured skill that I have and it will bring me in a good bit of money to do it for a living.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I am a welder by Choice, not by Chance. I weld to support my family, I weld to support myself, I weld to support this Great Country. I weld to teach my students how reach for the stars. I weld because I want to, not because I have to.
February 8th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I started welding fresh out of high school my old shop teacher got me job down the street from the school part time. Shortly after 911 I joined the Army as a welder. I love my job because I know that the things I creat and build can save my fellow soldiers lifes. I just recieved the syncrowave 350 today its a great machine. I really wish that Miller would have sent a power cord with the darn thing though they are not easy to come by in Iraq ya know. Im a little new at ordering things but you would think that if you order a nice new $5,000 machine you would get a power cord. but it is a great machine.
February 8th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Welding isn’t a job, it’s a career.
I have been welding for 7+ yrs. and i have yet to find a welder who hates “burning wire” for a living. When you see and/or meet another welder there is an unspoken bond. You automatically know what type of person they are, no questions needed.
The camaraderie is great.
February 8th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
My passion for welding began in I was about 8 years old. I went to a friends house for a birthday party and on the wall was a white on a black background picture of of a welder welding and I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen and I was hooked! I have had a burning desire to weld ever since. My Dad was an auto mechanic and he had an old AC cracker box that I started tinkering with when I was about 14. He showed me the basics and I grabbed a hand full of good old 6011 and some chunks of rebar and I went to town! When I was a junior in high school, a good customer of ours helped me got a job with the local welder. I worked for below minimum wages, but I knew I was getting something far more valuable……a career. I have now come full circle with the art of welding, I currently teach high school and adult students at our local vo tech. I am truely blessed, I live in the greatest country in the world and I get to share my passion with others. Ultimately, I am a welder because that is what God has planned for me. If you are not happy with your job, you need to move on to something else. Life is to short to spend it doing something you don’t enjoy.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:43 am
welding is a passion for me, a desire, to be able to grab any bit of plain boring steel and turn it into a work of art its like watching a child grow, each step, every tack weld, assembly and final product, every detail and measurement, making sure everthing is sqaure and true, welding for me isnt a hobby nor a job, its my life!!
February 10th, 2008 at 3:53 am
There is a lot to be said about people who are willing to dive in and get there hands dirty. Especially in such a skilled trade as welding. I am proud of the fact that I am a welder, and I can build anything I want. Welding is a good foundation to fabrication, and is necessary to be a good fabricator.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Life is a FUNNY thing, and the good lord see’s over us all, giving us talent in some places, and very little in others. I was blessed with the capability to WELD. When I was 15 my father, James W Anderson, brought me home a brand new huntsman hood, I used the hood to go to work at my brother in laws fathers structural steel shop in Long Beach Cal. For the most part I would use the hood to watch how the welders worked watching my brother in laws brother Edger, prepare to take his D1.1 certification test, after Ed past, he was gone to the feild Art would leave me in the shop to punch baseplates, deber, grind , etc…. one day after welding in class at school, then going to work at the shop, I was left there while Arts dad was out bidding on a job, I picked up two sides of a columb cap and using 7024 jet rod welded up a saddle for a columb, it had a pine hole or two, but for the most part the bead profile was pretty and clean, the slag pleald up like a bannana peal, and feel right off, should I say more, That was all it took I was hooked, Arts dad, got back to the shop, and asked me what I was doing, and I told him, putting these saddles for the columbs together, and he said hey ‘That looks pretty Good’ and I’ve been welding ever since, HA, HA, HA,…I now own my own Welding company, IronEagle Welding LLC. that was 27 years ago and tons of rod later. It has proven to be a honest living ever since, not being rich but being able to buy a hamburger when I am hungry. and that makes me feel good. D.Anderson IronEagle Welding LLC. Bullhead City, Topock, Arizonia
February 11th, 2008 at 9:52 am
What else could you do with a small time frame of education to start that pays what welding does besides rob banks. I’ve been around the world thanks to welding and I think its a art. I’m proud of my trade and I think its a shame most public schools don’t have Industrial Trades anymore.
February 17th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Hi! I am just starting tig and I have a lot to learn it’s great
I dabbled in gas.,stick,mig, now time at 73 to do tig my car body is falling a part and I am forming metal w/hand hammer and sand bag.Oh well:
good luck guy’s!
February 23rd, 2008 at 10:45 am
Because I like getting hot molten metal down in my boots, pants, shirts, hair, etc. Working long hours in all types of weather, breathing in god knows what! Trying to string leads through forty miles of hell! Getting shocked, in damp conditions or high humidity! Dealing with an array of different kinds of people! That’s why I am a welder, did I mention the pay is less than desirable, too? God I love my job!
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I love being able to fix things people can break.I also love being able to make things out of a simple piece of metal
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Welding is one of the most empowering things that I have ever done. To be able to take something as strong as steel, (I am a stainless pipe welder by trade) and then to mold it, and reshape it, is an incredible feeling… especially as a woman. I learned to weld as a hobby, so that I could create artwork for my home and family but fell in love with it and decide to make it a career (the money doesn’t hurt either). I love what I do and wouldn’t change it for anything.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I am an industrial mechanic by trade, and welding was a neccesary function that I had to learn. Once I was introduced to it, I really enjoyed it.
I even started a small welding business on the side. I changed jobs recently, and now I am welding full time. Not neccesarily out of choice, but the money was better than the industrial mechanic position I had. I believe it takes a certain kind of person to choose that profession. You really have to enjoy it to make a living at it. I believe I would die if I had to sit at a desk all day. Keep on “burning” my brothers and sisters!!
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
It’s an art which pays well and I enjoy what I do. I take pride in seeing the finished product (custom skylights, Wasco Products com.) on buildings. I have worked 20 years for this company and have done well even in the tuff economy. When I smell smoke I check to see what part of me is a fire.
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:39 am
I started my industrial career as an apprentice pipefitter at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Spent eight years there before I got sick of being a civil servant. When I got a job in private industry, I quickly learned that the shipyard way- doing only your job and nothing else- was the fastest way to the unemployment line. So, I started teaching myself to weld so I could become a multi craft mechanic. 15 years later, I own my own piping and welding business. Besides the money, I like being able to fix my own stuff (I have rebuilt two boat trailers given to me by friends, a twelve footer for my jon boat, and a 24 footer for my cabin cruiser), and I’m always doing something to help my buddies out. That’s what I like the most about it, because being an independently employed welder, I know what it costs to get a repair done!
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Once I got out of the service I was introduced to being a tacker for a fab shop. That is all it took because after a few weeks I was promoted to doing the welding in the trailer shop welding up car carrier trailers. Since then I went to Welders Training and Testing Institute and was certified up to 3/4 inch plate. Been welding since 1974 and even though I had a lot of layoff points in my life I could always have a job in a heart beat because of my training. Just put in 17 years in at a power plant construction job and really never new what kind of money was out there. I also have been nuclear certified and did my fair share. I just retired in Feb. 2008 and went out and purchase a Trailblazer302,Spoolamatic, and a 12cvExtreme and put them on a trailer so I can hook up anytime the job calls. I wouldn’t give up any of the experience or freindship I recieved over the last 34 years on the jobs. We are the ones that get the job done no matter what. We are also a dieing breed because they are getting short handed out in the field. GOD Bless everyone of us.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I think that if people love welding, than they can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) if people are just doing it for the money reasons, than i dont really know what to say. but i know that im just starting welding in my basic class and it could turn out to be a fun job and you could take pride in your work when your finished. It doesn’t seem like too hard of a job, but who know’s. Im sure that there are different types of welders for different aspects.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:41 am
i think that if people want to weld they should!!!!!! and if you love it do it!!!!!!i dont know alot about it but im learning and i injoy it !!! theres alot of jobs that need welders and i think that more people should learn its a good acpect in life you may need
May 6th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I dont no much about welding but im learning and so far i like it..
May 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I have only welded a few times and i was really nervous at first but i actually like it a lot and now im not so nervous.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:09 am
The Money is very good in welding and in some places up to $156.00 an hour!
May 6th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I agree with what this says about pay. Many people from this highschool took all the welding classes and when they graduated if they were good enough they got jobs at Lakeshore. Lakeshore pays really good compared to most jobs around here.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I actually got into TIG welding because I am a DJ…..
I did not like the quality of the flight case that were out there when I started spinning tunes over 30 yrs ago.. A friend gave me a used tig torch that I hooked up to the buzz box and started welding thin wall metals for the frame work on my flight cases..
30 some years later I have 10 or so tig torches.. A 350 P Mig setup, Syncrowave 250 tig/stick machine “love aluminum welding-do custom raft frames”, 5 Journeyman torch sets, I build gooseneck trailers when I get board and have a 2100 Sq Ft shop with 10 of every tool built by man..and a few I made myself along the way …LOL
I am currently rigging up a bed for the Sterling 5500 4×4 crew cab truck I just bought.. I loath people with “can’t” in their vocabulary.. Tell me what you you want it to do and get out of my way…
‘What a long strange trip it’s been” and loving the journey everyday!!!
July 16th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Liked welding when I was 10 and now I’m 55 … Don’t figure …
August 8th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Its value is huge, repair, construction, etc. Bo matter what other type of mechanic you are you double your skill set being a welder.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I started learning to weld about age 16 with an Oxy-Acety. rig bought with paper route money. I added to that a 180 amp Buzzbox about age 17. Over the years I have fabricated many items for the shop, trailers, tables, carts, you name it. Hanging out in a machine shop gave me opportunities to weld up quick repairs that would come into the shop. Much, much, later I went to a welding course at the local Comm. College, hung around a few years as a lab. tech. and eventually taught for a while. The thrill of building something out of nothing has always been satisfying. I just stopped and realized I’m still learning after 49 years. What great fun I’ve had, and great friends I’ve made. Regards to all!
August 9th, 2008 at 11:28 am
hey im 20 years old and i am a welder because and i love to weld! i am currently employed as a steel worker and i have my own mobile welding business part time. i love fixing broken equipment. i look at the problem and figure out why it broke, how can i make it so it wont brake again. thats what i like about my job, and theres just a special feeling when your mask is down and your welding away.. its like nothing else matters, your zoned out. all your mind is on your weld
Scotty
August 20th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
im 22 and im a welder because i eat,sleep and sh#t welding. i love everything there is about welding and theres nowhere id rather be than behind my helmet stairing at beads. i am currently a lead tig welder at a manufacturing company.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:06 am
I welded every working day for 30 yrs for CBI Industries. everything from water towers to nuclear reactors. welded on every type product they build.one of the most honable carees a man can do. nothing but hot,hard dirty work but wouldn’t change a day. skilled craftsmanship is what made America.